Hi all,

Wednesday, Oct. 20
Today was an easy day.  We relaxed around the motorhome this morning.  Around noon we headed out in the Honda to see Shiprock.  This is a large outcropping of rock which looks like a ship under sail.  The entire trip took less than 2 hours, including a couple of shopping stops.

At 2:00, I attended the Chapter Fair.  This is where many of the local chapters of this FMCA area set up tables, hand out data, and discuss their chapter activities.  Many of the chapters have a camp out once a month, usually skipping the summer months.  This area consists of 6 states (AZ, UT, CO, WY, NM, & NV), so the groups are widely disbursed.  None of the chapters I talked to were based around Prescott, although many included us geographically.  The couple that seemed like the best fit were centered in the Phoenix area, are very large and had a typical attendance of 40 to 80 rigs!  That's just too many for us!

Tonight was the official opening of the rally.  There was the normal recognizing of all the national and area officials.  The entertainment following was an exhibition of native dancing performed by local Navajo youth.  It was very interesting, especially the authentic costumes with their very bright colors,  and extensive plumage.

Thursday, Oct 21
I started today with the pancake breakfast.  These folks have done this before!  They have 2 very large grills, each about 2 by 4 feet.  To start the pancake process, they use a large dispenser which pours 4 pancakes at a time.  When they are done, the cook flips the pancakes and catches them on the top of a stack of plates, then hands you your plate.  I got 4 pancakes.  Then sausages, butter, and "orange juice".  At least it was orange colored and liquid.  Syrup is on the tables.  They were really excellent pancakes!

I then went to a seminar on communications in an RV.  It turned out the only form of communication they talked about was satellite Internet using the Starband equipment they sell.  I like to keep up with the current developments, but still cannot afford either the equipment or the monthly cost.

Betty and I went to a seminar on RVing in Alaska.  This was given by Fantasy Tours.  It was a little disappointing only from the standpoint that they talked about the places the tour took you and had excellent slides showing them, but they did not even touch upon what the caravan company does for you and the ins and outs of caravan travel.  We learned much more of this aspect from John and Barbara Cairns, who recently returned from a 48 day Alaska tour with this same company.

Afterwards we toured the exhibits.  That was expensive!  The exhibition area is the smallest here of any rally we have attended.  There are only about 50 vendors with about 2/3 of them selling totally non-RV related items.  There was one booth selling handicap scooters.  We really liked one of their models.  It solves the issues we have with Betty's old one, which we bought at a church rummage sale.  One of the major issues has been that the key and speed control are on the bottom pedestal and she cannot reach them.  I have to do all the on-off and speed setting for her.  The new one has all that on the top of the handlebar assembly.  It is small enough that we should not have a problem carrying it in almost any vehicle.  It easily disassembles into 4 parts, the heaviest of which is 30 pounds.  We really like it.  This is the replacement for the scooter Mother gave Betty, and which was taken when Mother's storage unit was burglarized.  In other words the insurance company bought this scooter.

Shortly after returning from the exhibits, we went to the Ice Cream Social.  Betty took her scooter and found a table for us while I stood in line.  While there, one of the people next to me said "Look where he is from" to his friend.  I looked and they were from Prescott Valley.  It turned out there were half a dozen people right there from within 10 or 15 miles of us.  They were from a group of 11 coaches of the Sun Country Road Runners, a chapter which was not represented at the Chapter Fair.  It turns out that most of the members are from Prescott or the immediately surrounding cities.  They invited us to join them at 4:00 for their "happy hour", and told me where they were parked.

I figured that seeing them at the happy hour should be seeing them at their worst, and give us an idea of whether we were interested in joining them.  If their main avocation was drinking, like a local Foretravel group we attended once, we were not interested.  We found them and were warmly welcomed.  They seem to be a fine group of people!  They volunteered that no one in the group smoked, and that while a few would have a drink of wine or a beer, in general there was no drinking.  The happy hour was snacks, goodies and conversation.  They usually have 12 to 15 coaches on a camp out, usually go for about 3 days except for an occasional longer trip, such as this one to Monument Valley and Canyon DeChelly, then here.  I think we will join this group.

It was cold and windy tonight and we decided to skip the entertainment which was a juggler and comedian.  I processed the photographs and posted them on my website instead.

Friday, Oct 22
I started with another pancake breakfast - a duplicate of yesterday's.  Today was my busiest day with seminars.  I originally had scheduled 5, but cut that down to 4.  As it turned out, the first two were given by the same man talking about communications and computers in RVs and about GPS systems for RVs.  Both were very well done.  The other two were about RV electrical systems Part 1 and Part 2.  The fellow who presented these is quite a character!  He did a stand-up comedy routine before each seminar started, talking about his family from Cucumber, MO, a town of 14 (and quite mythical).  He has two electrical engineering degrees, and did some quite high level work in industry.  Now that he is retired, he tours the rally circuit selling mostly electrical items for RVs.  His wife shares the booth and sells jewelry.

At 2:00, Betty went (on her new scooter) with the lady next door to a Red Hat tea and fashion show.  The program displayed Navajo clothing and jewelry.  I think she enjoyed herself!

At tonight's evening program they announced there were over 450 attendee coaches here (they gave an exact number, but who can remember?).  There were also vender's personal coaches and the display coaches for a total of 534 coaches.

Tonight's entertainment was a Country Western group, the Bar D Wranglers.  They put on a great show which was a combination of music, comedy, and cowboy poetry.  They run a chuck-house in Durango during the summer months and perform there.

Saturday, Oct 23
After the daily pancake breakfast, I attended my only seminar of the day, Fire and Life Safety Training for RVers.  This has been presented each day, and is sponsored by the FMCA and RV Alliance, and is the one I cancelled from yesterday.  This was by far the best seminar I attended!  It lasted 2 hours.  The first hour and a half was spent discussing many aspects of motorhome and trailer fire safety and showed us the best way to handle many situations.  He went through the various fire, CO, and propane alarms.  The really scary part is that when your fire alarm goes off, you need to be out in 20 seconds!

He discussed the various types of fire extinguishers and the classes of fires A, B, C, and D.  D is an industrial designation, so only A, B, and C apply to our situations.  Type A is wood, fabric,12 volt fires, etc.  Basically A is any fire that leaves an Ash (capitalized for mnemonics).  He stressed the 12 volt fires here, as statistics show that 70 to 80 percent of RV fires start from 12 volt electrical failures.  B fires are flammable liquids such as gasoline, oil, diesel fuel, etc.  Type C fires are energized electrical (120 and higher volt) fires.  If you unplug a burning appliance (C fire) it then becomes an A fire.

The most common type of fire extinguisher in current homes and vehicles is the dry powder.  This is quite effective, but really makes a mess!  It also only extinguishes the points of the fire that the powder hits, and the powder can pack, requiring you to periodically loosen it by banging the extinguisher.  CO2 is very effective indoors, but is useless outdoors if there is any wind.  Halon has the same limitation, but it is illegal to manufacture any more halon, so the ones you buy are VERY expensive ($650 or so).  For years professional firefighters have used a liquid foam extinguisher.  It is very effective, but the foam is toxic, so it has not been offered to the public.  In the last couple of years, Kidde, one of the major extinguisher manufacturers has developed a totally non-toxic foam that is now available on the open market.  All this sounded very good, but it is hard to imagine just what the differences really are.

That is where the last half hour was very informative!  Actually we held him for at least 20 minutes overtime.  In the back parking lot he had a table set up with a number of extinguishers, a propane bottle, a gasoline can, and several other items on it.  Near it was another table next to a steel pan about 2 1/2 or 3 feet square on the ground.  He started by selecting a couple of women from the group, gave them each a fire extinguisher and showed them how to use it.  He then poured his fuel from the gas can into a skillet.  It really was a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline.  He lit it and had the women, in turn extinguish it using powder.  It worked great, but left a lot of white residue on all the surroundings and a massive cloud in the air.  He then in turn did a couple more fires in the pan, then in the square pan on the ground.  This produced a very roaring fire!  He then slid a piece of plywood at least 6 feet high into clips on the pan.  He would pour fuel on the board, then in the pan and light it.  He or the women put out each fire with different extinguishers.  When he used the foam, he really made a believer of me!  He could hit just part of the fire and in a few seconds the entire fire went out.  The foam flows towards the fire, therefore you don't have to be nearly as careful to hit every little place where there is flame.  Another advantage of the foam is that it is an emulsifier.  After it kills the fire, the foam will pull out any oil or fuel and essentially turn it into soap.  After putting out the pan fire one of the times, he sloshed his hands in the remaining liquid and made the rounds letting each of us touch our thumb and forefinger to the white foam on his hand.  It felt soapy and smelled very fresh.  There was no fuel smell at all!

I ended up buying 4 foam extinguishers for our motorhome and toad.  He recommends a total of 5.  A large one by the front door, accessible from inside or out, a small one each in the bedroom, kitchen, and in your towed car.  The 5th one should be in an outside compartment.  This can be your existing powder unit.  Powder is somewhat more effective on propane fires than the foam.  After thinking about it we decided to go back and get 3 more for our house!

I made a quick tour of the new coaches for sale.  It is interesting to see all the glitz and glitter some of them offer, but I didn't see any I would change for ours!

Betty and I then went into town and had lunch/dinner at Johnny Carrino's Italian restaurant.  They offered a discount to rally attendees.

This evening's entertainment was by Bill White.  He is a nephew of Jim Reeves, and has a wonderful voice.  Jim was killed in a plane crash 40 years ago.  Bill did a tribute to Jim Reeves, but also sang many well known songs from other artists.  He mentioned that after this show, he had to be back at work tomorrow evening.  He later mentioned that he worked his regular job Sundays.  He is a Baptist preacher!  I bet that church has some great music!  We thoroughly enjoyed this show, which was the last event of this rally.

We head for home tomorrow morning and will go as far as Winslow, AZ.  We should be home Monday morning.

Thanks so much for traveling with us.  I look forward to writing about our next trip.  See you then.

With love,

Dick and Betty